Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party Presidential candidate has berated President Bola Tinubu for offering St Lucia students scholarship in Nigerian universities.

On Monday, June 30, President Bola Tinubu who is currently on a state visit to St Lucia, approved a new scholarship programme for students from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to study at Nigerian universities starting from the next academic year.

The President said the initiative is already underway and will be coordinated through a joint committee between Nigeria and OECS member states.

“The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States is very close to us in Africa. We are moving forward to facilitate business and education opportunities, build capacity, and explore other areas such as agriculture and food security. We won’t drop the ball,” Tinubu said.

Reacting to this decision, Obi in a statement released on Wednesday, July 2, argued that Tinubu's action is a betrayal against the Nigerian child particularly since pupils of public primary schools are all at home as teachers are currently on strike over unpaid wages.

He averred that it is heartbreaking for President Tinubu to proffer solution to the educational needs of children in other countries when Nigerian children are being deprived of the same basic need.

His statement shared on social media reads

‘’I have consistently maintained that our underdevelopment is due to Leadership failure.

It is heartbreaking that our President, who is the leader of a country with the highest number of out of school children in the world and with the students in the capital of his own nation Abuja presently not attending schools, would travel to St. Lucia and offer scholarships to children there, while his own country’s education system is in ruins, and even currently his nation’s capital, the Federal Capital Territory, the supposed seat of governance, have public schools shut down and closed for months.

This is not leadership, it is negligence at its peak. It is an act of betrayal against the Nigerian child.

Nigeria has approximately 20 million children out of school, according to UNICEF, the highest number globally, with a literacy rate of under 60% far below the global average of 87%. Similarly, the life expectancy stands at a mere 54 years, out of the global average measurement of above 70 years, one of the lowest in the world.

On Human Development Index (HDI), which is the most critical measure of development, Nigeria is ranked in the "Low Category" at 161 out of 193 countries measured, while St. Lucia, a Caribbean nation, has a literacy rate of over 90% which is above the global average of 87%.

In life expectancy of more than 72 years, which is within the global average.

On HDI which Nigeria is in the Low category, they air in the "High Category"

So tell me, what sense does it make that a president of a country with such terrible and dire statistics would travel to a country with better indexes of development especially in education and still offer them scholarships funded by Nigerian taxpayers when Nigeria children are largely out of school and the teachers not yet paid for months?

Mr. President, by offering St Lucia students a scholarship, shows he knows how important education is, while depriving Nigerian students of the same access to education.

We must, as a nation, reject these continued normalisations of misplaced priorities and build a better nation for us and our children.Nigerian travel destinations

A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO''